League of Legends: Camille abilities and strategy tips

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League of Legends‘ [official site] latest champ, Camille, The Steel Shadow, is a highly-mobile fighter who excels at single target duels and skirmishes. Camille’s abilities allow her to swiftly shred through her opponents and effortlessly dart around the map. The Steel Shadow is an excellent addition to the roster and shares similarities to Fiora, the Grand Duelist. Despite her strengths Camille requires good mechanical awareness, positioning and target prioritisation. If you’re looking to slice and dice your way to victory, Camille might be the champion you’re looking for.

Camille’s Abilities

Adaptive Defenses [Passive] – Camille’s basic attacks grant a shield against her opponent’s primary damage type. The shield’s strength increases based on Camille’s maximum HP. It’s a very simple, yet effective passive that gives her a lot of dueling power and access to bruiser type builds.

Precision Protocol [Q] – The Steel Shadow’s next basic attack slashes the enemy dealing bonus physical damage and grants her a short burst of bonus movement speed. After the initial cast, Camille can recast Precision Protocol once again for an additional attack that deals true damage. Use this ability to split-push lanes and quickly destroy enemy turrets to apply vital map pressure.

Tactical Sweep [W] – Camille leaps into the air and releases a blast of energy forward in a cone, dealing physical damage to all targets hit. Enemies who are hit by the outer half of the cone will be slowed for a few seconds and take further damage based on their maximum HP. The ability will also heal Camille a bit as well, so try land the outer half of Tactical Sweep so that you receive the full benefits of this ability.

Hookshot [E] – Hookshot is Camille’s main source of mobility and engage. The first cast fires a hookshot in a target direction that attaches to terrain, causing her to dash toward it and giving her a brief window to recast. The second cast (Wall Dive) allows Camille to dash to a target location once again; the range is doubled if she is in range of an enemy champion. Upon colliding with the first enemy struck, Camille deals physical damage to all nearby enemies and stuns them. She also gains bonus attack speed after the second cast of Hookshot.

Hextech Ultimatum [R] – When activated, Camille leaps onto a targeted enemy champion, locking them in a hexagonal zone. All nearby enemies are knocked away and those caught within the zone are free to move around, but they cannot leave. Camille’s basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and will only stop when the arena deactivates after a brief period of time. She can also choose to leave the arena which will prematurely drop the prison walls. While it may be good at singling out enemy units, remember that those who are knocked away from the ultimate will be able to re-enter the zone to try and help their trapped ally.

Camille Strategy Tips

Camille’s abilities really complement her overall style and she’s easily one of the most fun champions to be released this year. Her laning phase feels pretty solid and while she may not be the strongest champion in the Rift, she does have a lot of great tools at her disposal. Tactical Sweep provides some nice sustain and is really satisfying to use, especially when you only just manage to land the outer half of the ability on your foe. Getting the bonus damage, heal and slow can be a little tricky, but once you learn the windup of the ability you’ll be able sweep enemies off their feet. Tactical Sweep does have fairly high cooldown, so try to land it when you require that extra bit of HP to help you stay in lane, or use the slow to stop an enemy from escaping.

Camille really shines when played in the top lane as her Hookshot ability can be used to its full potential. The walled off sections of top lane give a greater level of choice when it comes to engaging a target from multiple angles. Camille’s Hookshot has a similar feel and cooldown to that of Amumu’s Bandage Toss, as it allows her to dash towards her target and stun them. It also does a decent amount of physical damage to all nearby enemy champions, but unlike Amumu, you lack the tankiness to engage multiple foes. Only engage your enemy laner with Hookshot when you know you can safely 1v1 them without any interference. Once stunned, combo your Q and W to trade damage without the fear of retaliation. Camille can either continue her assault or retreat back to safety and wait for her passive to come back up before engaging once more.

League’s latest champion feels very similar to the duelist Fiora, but she also shares similarities to assassin-type champions. This combination of bruiser and assassin makes for some incredibly fun gameplay, but while the Steel Shadow may look menacing she actually has some very clear-cut weaknesses. In my experience, I found her to be very vulnerable to harass as her passive has such a long cooldown. Try to duel when you have access to your shield as this will greatly reduce the amount of damage you take and give you that edge over your opponent.

However, her ultimate is where she really shines in the laning phase. If you manage to get a decent lead you’ll be able to snowball like crazy. There’s nothing more satisfying than strolling up to an enemy Teemo and watching the panic set in as you leap onto him and close off all chances of escape. The knockback from the ultimate is a greatly welcomed feature that gives you a few precious seconds to swiftly dispatch your prisoner before their allies come to their rescue. Hextech Ultimatum also has great utility as you can use it to both imprison champions and counter enemy abilities and ultimates. This utility gives Camille a fresh, dynamic playstyle that oozes potential. As a result she can either fit the role of an assassin, bruiser or front-line tank should the game dictate.

The mobile fighter shares similar item builds to champions like Yasuo and Fiora as her playstyle benefits from Black Cleaver, Trinity Force and Ravenous Hydra. Cleaver gives her the ability to shred through enemy armour, while adding to her overall health and survivability. Trinity Force gives a significant boost to her movement speed and bonus physical attack damage, which makes her Precision Protocol ability even more potent. The added AD, lifesteal and burst from Ravenous Hydra help make her wave clear and split-pushing more effective. Lastly, make sure you build more tanky items as the game progresses. I found Dead Man’s Plate and Spirit Visage work nicely as they give her passive shield even more strength and give you more survivability.

Overall, Camille is a great addition to the roster. She has the potential to outclass a lot of champions, especially many of the assassins that are currently roaming around the Rift. Many players may be put off by her high skill cap, but those who are willing to learn her intricacies will be greatly rewarded.

[Note: Camille is currently playable on the public beta environment which is where the final round of testing a champion happens before they join League of Legends proper. She may get some tweaks in the meantime but generally there aren’t huge overhauls at this stage!]